G42
A 3D experience to showcase the power of The Intelligence Grid
Imagine a world where AI is just another utility, smoothing the flow of modern society like electricity or broadband. A once-disruptive force that evolves to become a basic human right. An invisible power that makes life easier, homes smarter and cities more connected.
The Intelligence Grid is G42’s singular vision for AI as an omnipresent utility. And as a leading technology group, home to nine businesses pioneering cross-industry cloud and AI solutions, G42 is in prime position to turn this vision into reality.
Powering a better future
From a practical perspective, The Intelligence Grid consolidates G42’s portfolio of services and capabilities into a single-source customer experience. But as a concept, it represents a much bigger ambition: a self-perpetuating infrastructure that connects all the assets, solutions and resources high-performance AI needs – and powers a better future for humanity.
Four weeks ahead of the world’s biggest technology and start-up show, Gitex Global in Dubai, G42 was looking for a bold, inventive way to launch the concept to an audience of city planners, government officials and Emirati royalty. The proposition was intriguing and the timeline impossible: naturally, we rose to the challenge.
We jumped straight in, interrogating the core concept and its many varied elements in order to build a foundation for an accessible, immersive solution that would allow Gitex delegates to not only understand, but experience The Intelligence Grid first-hand.
Puzzle pieces
We worked closely with G42’s creative team to tease out their vision, and helped the nine G42 businesses map their offerings against the integrated portfolio. This gave us a deep understanding of each of the solutions, how they relate to each other, and what value they deliver to people. Bringing the puzzle pieces together was immensely satisfying.
From the cable networks beneath our feet to the autonomous vehicles, weather stations and connected hospitals we interact with; via the apps that power them and the cloud services that capture the data; to the big-picture vision provided by satellites: it all forms the fabric of tomorrow’s city. And it all needed to come together into one seamless experience that Gitex visitors could easily navigate according to their interests.
A layered approach
We imagined The Intelligence Grid as a smart city in an interactive 3D environment, beaming from a curved LED wall and explored with a touch-screen controller. In all, we needed to represent five conceptual and technological layers, 30 key buildings and a multitude of innovative apps and solutions, all organised into use cases.
We dug into G42’s existing brand identity to establish a clean, minimal look and feel. The client wanted the end result to be polished and well-executed but not too “real”, so we opted for a clay-like, low-polygon 3D effect. We built it with Unreal Engine, a powerful 3D gaming platform that gave us full creative freedom.
Our Design Director Ross Sweetmore explains:
“The sheer scale and curvature of the installation meant attendees were going to be immersed in a very physical way, which was an amazing opportunity for us to get creative with the 3D city – but it also meant we had nowhere to hide. We designed a user interface that was seamless and accessible across both screens. By pairing the transparent touchscreen with a crisp, glassy user interface, we ensured that both the physical and digital felt one and the same.”
Finally, we generated more than 200 written descriptions, plugging a varied collection of different information into ChatGPT and editing the output for quality and consistency.
Global collaboration
We travelled to Dubai to make sure it all went off without a hitch, which also meant we were there to witness delegates’ interest and engagement.
As well as raising critical awareness for G42’s brand and establishing The Intelligence Grid as a transformative but simple concept, the experience captured users’ journeys and contact details, ensuring that their introduction to the Intelligence Grid was just the start of an impactful conversation.
Giacomo Ziani, VP of Corporate Marketing & Communications at G42 said:
“The Frameworks transformed an ambitious idea into a seriously impressive experience. It’s just what we needed to cut through the noise at Gitex Global and we were pleased with the reaction we got from the crowds.”
We’re proud to have been part of this collaboration, coordinating a global team of people with a shared vision and problem-solving through daily touch-points to pull off a complex project in four short weeks. And we’re excited to play our part in enabling a smarter, more connected future.
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